Generally, communication devices, electronic devices and their peripheral devices (e.g. phones, routers, mouse devices, keyboards and chargers) use cords as mediators of power supply or data transmission. For complying different occasions, each cord has a specified length. For example, if the computer host is far away from the desk surface, a longer cord is employed to achieve the normal operation of the mouse device. Since the length of the cord of each product is fixed, some drawbacks may occur. For example, too long cord may cause messiness of the user's working platform. During the process of storing and carrying the product, the long cord is easily entangled. Moreover, it is difficult to operate the product with the short cord. In other words, the long cord and the short cord are both inconvenient to the user.
For overcoming the above problems, a variety of cord winders have been introduced into the market. The cord winder is used for receiving a portion of a cord therein. According to the practical requirements, the exposed length of the cord outside the cord winder can be adjusted by the user as required. Hereinafter, a conventional cord winder will be illustrated with reference to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic exploded view illustrating a conventional cord winder.
First of all, the components of the cord winder 1 will be illustrated as follows. As shown in FIG. 1, the cord winder 1 comprises a top cover 11, a push button 12, a spiral spring 13, a rotating disc 14, a cord 15, a winding reel 16, a bottom disc 17, and a bottom cover 18. The push button 12 comprises a sustaining rod 122. The spiral spring 13 comprises an inner end 131 and a hook part 132. The rotating disc 14 comprises an edge seat 141, a clamping sheet 1411, a central hole 142, a positioning block 143, and an engaging hole 144. The winding reel 16 comprises an upside part 161, a winding seat 1611, an engaging buckle 1612, and a downside part 162. The bottom disc 17 comprises a central axel 171.
A process of assembling the cord winder 1 will be illustrated as follows. Firstly, the spiral spring 13 is disposed within the edge seat 141 of the rotating disc 14. Then, the central axel 171 of the bottom disc 17 is penetrated through the central hole 142 of the rotating disc 14, and the inner end 131 of the spiral spring 13 is fixedly connected with the central axel 171 of the bottom disc 17. In addition, the hook part 132 at an outer end of the spiral spring 13 is engaged with the clamping sheet 1411 of the edge seat 141.
Then, the engaging buckle 1612 of the winding seat 1611 on the upside part 161 of the winding reel 16 and the corresponding engaging hole 144 of the rotating disc 14 are engaged with each other. After the cord 15 is wound around the outer surface of the winding seat 1611, the cord 15 is penetrated through the winding reel 16 to the downside part 162 and wound around the downside part 162. Then, the cord 15 is penetrated through the bottom disc 17, and fixed on the bottom disc 17. Meanwhile, since an end of the cord 15 can be freely pulled and the other end of the cord 15 is in a fixed status, the single pull function is achieved.
Afterwards, the push button 12 is pivotally coupled to an outer side of the top cover 11. The push button 12 can be restored to its original position after the push button 12 is pressed down. Moreover, the position of the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 corresponds to the position of the positioning block 143 of the rotating disc 14.
Hereinafter, the operating principles of the cord winder 1 will be illustrated in more details. When an end of the cord 15 is pulled by the user, the rotating disc 14, the winding reel 16 and the cord 15 wound around the upside part 161 are synchronously rotated. Meanwhile, the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 is slid along the positioning block 143 of the rotating disc 14, so that the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 is not positioned. As the rotating disc 14 and the winding reel 16 are rotated, the spiral spring 13 is gradually in a tightened status.
Until the cord 15 is pulled to expose the desired length and the cord 15 is no longer pulled, the rotating disc 14 is reversely rotated in response to the restoring force of the spiral spring 13. Under this circumstance, the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 is contacted with the positioning block 143 of the rotating disc 14, and thus the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 is positioned.
For retracting the pulled cord 15 back to the inner space of the cord winder 1, the user may press down the push button 12 to have the sustaining rod 122 detach from the positioning block 143. Consequently, the rotating disc 14 and the winding reel 16 are continuously rotated in the reverse direction to retract the cord 15 back. As the cord 15 is retracted back, the spiral spring 13 is gradually in a loosened status.
From the above discussions about the conventional cord winder 1, the cord 15 is retracted back by pressing down the push button 12 and the positioning function is achieved by the sustaining rod 122. However, the conventional cord winder 1 still has some drawbacks. For example, since the push button 12 of the cord winder 1 is located at a lateral side of the top cover 11, the size of the push button 12 is restricted by the thickness of the top cover 11. If the size of the push button 12 is too small, it is difficult to manipulate the push button 12. Whereas, if the thickness of the top cover 11 is changed to comply with the size of the push button 12, after the size of the push button 12 is adjusted to an optimized size, the thickness of the top cover 11 is usually too thick.
Moreover, the sustaining rod 122 of the push button 12 is contacted with the positioning block 143 of the rotating disc 14 to achieve the positioning function. Due to the limitation of the size of the push button 12, the sustaining rod 122 is usually weak and thin. Under this circumstance, the use life of the cord winder 1 is adversely affected.
For overcoming the above drawbacks of the conventional cord winder, there is a need of providing an improved cord winder.